by Dianna Love
“I just got this thing under control,” he said, eyeing his dick that was busy coming back up to attention.
“Why waste it?” she chided him.
His long sigh should have warned her. He said, “I have to leave for a bit.”
Her face fell. “You’re not leaving me here.”
“Just until we can figure out who’s behind the attack last night.”
Well that ruined her morning. “No. Hell, no. I need to get to my office and find out if anything new has come up overnight.”
“This is not an argument you’re going to win, Tess.”
She jumped up, grabbing the sheet to wrap around her body. She had no problem being naked with him, but she couldn’t argue decisively in the buff. “I thought I made it clear last night that I am not the little woman who needs someone to make my decisions.”
“That not what I’m saying,” he snapped, pissed off.
She was unprepared to litigate this yet. “I’m taking a shower. Don’t you dare leave while I’m gone or you will regret that.”
Not allowing him another word, she stormed into the shower.
He’d see it her way once she could get her thoughts straight. Just like she planned to show him how with a little patience on his part, they had forever to figure out their relationship.
Chapter 32
Cole was ready for battle.
Standing with his legs apart and arms crossed, he waited in the middle of the small living room for Tornado Tess to come out and wreck his mind.
She stepped from the bedroom wearing her pants from last night and another of his T-shirts. No makeup and hair pulled up in one of those magical buns women created with nothing but a clip, showcasing her high cheeks and smooth skin.
In this case, the clip was her mother’s barrette he’d found. That had to be worth some brownie points.
She cocked up her chin. “Now, we can have a conversation.”
“You mean now that you’ve got your armor in place you’re ready to do battle?”
“What armor?”
Shaking his head, he got down to business. “You can’t go back to Spartanburg today.”
“You expect me to just wait here and do nothing?”
“No. I’m not expecting anything. I’m asking you to work with me on this.” He unfolded his arms and walked over to her and held out a plain looking mobile phone. “This is a burner phone. It can’t be traced. You can call in and find out what’s going on at work. I’d appreciate it if you did not tell anyone where you are.”
She twisted her mouth and chewed on one side. That was the best sign he could get, because it meant she was considering a counterproposal.
He wanted to end negotiations before she had time to think it all through. “I’ll be back in three, maybe four hours. That’s all I’m asking. If you need to go to work after that, I’ll figure something out, but it’s Saturday. Surely you can beg off one day, even a weekend.”
More logic for her to work through.
Time to close the deal. Cole said, “If you tell anyone where you are, you’ll get me hauled in to face extreme discipline.”
Her fear hit him so hard he hated that he’d shaded the truth a bit on that one.
She shook her head. “What are you talking about?”
“Please don’t ask me to tell you more than I have.”
Her face softened. There was the compassion he’d hoped for because he hadn’t shaded the truth too much.
“Just a short time, okay?” Cole asked, trying to get her agreement.
She crossed her arms. “Here’s my offer.”
Had he really thought he was going to convince this woman to stay out of the way or actually get cooperation? “What?”
“You take me to my apartment where I have excellent security.”
“I got past them,” he pointed out, reminding her it was dangerous to underestimate shifters.
“But that’s because you and your team have superpowers, right? If I’m not available for my office to courier files to, they will become very suspicious. I’ve agreed to keep your secrets, but to do that I need you to work with me. Also, if my father comes into town again he’ll want me to either meet him or to come see me.”
He could come up with a half dozen ways others could get into the building, but that wasn’t what had him thinking twice. This home was well hidden in the woods, but he kept assuming he’d be back no matter what.
If the Black River pack got their claws on him, she’d be more vulnerable out here alone if they had any way to figure out where she’d gone.
Miss Smarty Pants was staring him down with a look that said she had won her case. She only waited on him to admit the obvious.
Brilliant and gorgeous.
He made it look as if he’d thought on her offer and said, “I admit, you make a valid argument.”
No litigator had smiled so brightly. “We just have to coordinate our day. How long are you going to be gone after you drop me off?”
“Four hours should be maximum.”
“Then I expect to see you or hear from you in four hours. Not a minute longer.”
His hardheaded negotiator would not stop until she’d won every concession. “Agreed.”
She stood there looking ... worried.
She was concerned about him.
Gray Wolf had been banging around but not being annoying yet. His wolf liked that their mate cared.
Hell, I do too, Cole silently admitted. I’m just as fucked up as you are to even be here with her.
Me good.
Of course, Gray Wolf didn’t think he was psychotic.
Needing to get rolling, but wanting to make sure she was safe, Cole walked over to his duffel bag and pulled out one of three guns. He had more in his SUV. Sometimes a bullet saved ripping into the enemy with his claws.
“I know you have a weapon at home, but can you shoot?”
She surprised him when she said, “Yes.”
“Really?”
“Don’t piss me off or I’ll show you,” she groused. “I grew up a politician’s daughter. Security everywhere, but once I went out on my own I told my father I didn’t want to bump into security the rest of my life. He said he wouldn’t assign anyone if I proved I could defend myself. I took an intense self-defense class, then spent three months training and brought my father to the gun range to watch me shoot targets at twenty-five yards. Nailed them.”
She just got hotter and hotter.
Cole wanted no chance someone would get to her. “Just remember, if you have to use it, no double-tap like for a human. Empty the magazine.”
She said, “Got it. I need clothes. I can’t walk into my building like this.”
“We’ll hit a Wal-Mart on the way and get you enough to enter your apartment looking decent.” Personally, he preferred her looking indecent.
“That works.” She handed the gun back to him.
He loaded her into his SUV and took one last look at the cabin he might not see again. An hour later, Tess wore new sneakers, jeans and a button-down shirt, looking more like the young woman he’d met in college.
When they reached her apartment, he had her inform the security she had a stalker. No one was to be allowed entrance as her guest other than her father and Cole. Packages were to be left at the front and delivered by security.
Her apartment was no different than he’d seen the other day, beyond clothes being picked up.
Letting her go when the time came would be the hardest thing he’d ever done. She stood in her doorway and lifted up on her tiptoes to kiss him. “I love you, Cole.”
Cole’s heart paused, then thumped hard. Those were the words he’d wanted to hear seven years ago.
She said, “I know you love me and that you think we can’t figure this out, but we can at least try.”
He wouldn’t be around that long. “We’ll talk.”
That was the most he could commit to without lying to her. He cupped her face and kissed her b
ack then said, “Go inside, baby. Be safe. I need to know you’re safe no matter what.”
She sniffled, but not a tear fell. Not his tough girl.
She nodded. “I’ll be fine as long as you’re the one who comes back for me. No one else. If any foolish shifter tries to get to me, I’m a good shot, and they won’t like which part has to heal.”
His woman. He loved her and it hurt not to say so, but that would make his final parting even worse. “Take that burner phone with you and answer it even if you’re in the shower. If not, this building will be under siege from an army of shifters like me. I’ll be back soon.”
She gave him one last look and turned to walk inside.
He grabbed her arm and gently turned her around.
“What?” she asked, her heart in her eyes.
He kissed her with the desperation of a man afraid he’d never see her again, then whispered, “I have never stopped loving you and never will.”
Her lips parted but not a word escaped.
He eased her inside the apartment and closed the door, reminding her at the last moment to lock up.
With her eyes shiny from unshed tears, she smiled and shut the door. He waited to hear the locks being set before he was on his way.
Cole called Rory on his way back down. “Tess is set. I gave her the burner phone and you have the number if you need to reach her. I’ll be back as soon as I see Katelyn. I need to hurry to be on time.”
“We got your back and your woman covered.”
Cole didn’t correct him. “Thanks.”
He did a quick time check.
Katelyn said she’d meet with him for ten minutes. He had to get there ahead of that schedule to make sure she didn’t show up early, get cold feet, and take off.
Chapter 33
Tess took the damn burner phone into the shower with her, wishing she had Cole in her hands instead. She understood the need to be extra careful and did not want her father to get wind of what had happened yesterday.
He’d show up and wouldn’t leave until she returned home with him.
But that wasn’t her home. It hadn’t been since her mother died.
Her father loved her in his own distorted and demanding way, but she couldn’t live her life for him.
She couldn’t avoid being honest with him and have any kind of real relationship that would last. She’d allowed him to get away with too many things since her mother’s death. It was time he showed her the respect she deserved or they wouldn’t be able to move past a semi-polite relationship.
But what if her dad wouldn’t come around? She had to consider that possibility. Dammit. Just when Tess felt like she had a handle on how to deal with her father, her conscience began layering on one pile of guilt after another, warning her that he might never speak to her again.
And that he could die unexpectedly, just like her mother, if he and Tess couldn’t figure this out.
She didn’t understand nearly as much as she’d thought about the shifter world, but Cole could explain it as they took some time to get to know each other again. The way she saw it, she had three years to come up with a final plan so he never faced that witch’s mating curse.
Evil witch.
She opened her computer and ran through emails to see if anything significant had happened at work.
No. Not unless Brantley had broken the case wide open and was holding a party to celebrate his next step up over the top of her.
But what if he was this Cadell person Cole had talked about?
What if he wasn’t, and Tess was prejudging him on no evidence?
Tired from so many mental battles, she kept moving through her messages.
An email she didn’t recognize popped up. She clicked on it and read:
Ms. Janver -
I understand you want to speak with the alpha who was present when your mother died. Below is a number for you to call.
Tess looked for any other notation besides the phone number, but there was none.
Looked like Scarlett had come through.
She snatched up the burner phone and dialed.
A long night of robust sex had supercharged her. She was a woman on a mission to get answers. Even her energy was churning at a low hum, acting content.
The phone rang twice then she heard, “Is this Ms. Janver?”
No hesitating now. She said, “Yes, it is. Who is this?”
“Please hold for a moment.”
The sound of the phone being handed off followed. “Hello, Ms. Janver. I am Alejandro, the alpha of a small pride in eastern Tennessee. I understand you have questions for me.” He had the cultured voice and soft accent of a man from Spain.
Her request had been answered. “Thank you for contacting me, Alejandro. I would have contacted you sooner, but I only recently figured out how to find you.”
“I will assume your father doesn’t know, as he spent a lot of money to make sure you never spoke to me.”
Shock stole her voice.
“Ms. Janver?”
“Sorry, I was trying to figure out why my father would do that. As I understand it from reports I’ve read, you were never convicted of any wrongdoing.”
“That’s because I didn’t commit any crime.”
She had no way to smooth that over. “Would you tell me what happened the day my mother died?”
“Do you question the court records?”
“To be honest, I don’t have them. They’re sealed and I haven’t found a judge willing to issue the order to open them. I know from media articles that there was another shifter present who got away.”
“He was much worse than a rogue shifter. He belonged to the Black River wolf pack.”
Her heart hit her feet. Her father had never shared that. She managed to keep her voice even. “I didn’t know that. Did you two have a quarrel?”
“Not exactly. We didn’t know each other before that day. I was on my way to a meeting in Richmond when I heard a woman in distress. I went to investigate and found a wolf shifter threatening to change from his human form and attack her if she didn’t take him to an ATM and empty her account.”
Tess clutched her throat, envisioning her poor mother in terror. Where had her daughter been? Drowning in her despair over being a freak who couldn’t keep the man she loved. She’d been so angry at the world that day, her mobile phone had fried in her unshielded hand.
She hadn’t cared. Just threw it against a wall.
She didn’t hear the message from her mother until the day after her mother’s funeral when she’d had the phone replaced.
From that moment on, she’d pushed herself to rejoin the world, care about something other than her broken heart, and to wear gloves when she couldn’t get around it.
Clearing her suddenly thick throat, Tess said, “What happened next?”
“I intervened, intending to send him on his way and help your mother reach her destination safely. But the wolf shifted, right there in public, and attacked. I’m strong, but I had to release my animal to match his power or he’d have killed us both before any law enforcement showed up. I shifted and almost lost, but in the end I stopped him.”
“How?”
“I ripped his throat out.” Alejandro had said that with the simplicity of ordering a meal. “I’m sorry your mother had to witness the brutal battle, but I had no option and was trying to protect her at that moment. I shifted back to human form and went to her. She was still alive. I held her hand and waited for the EMTs to arrive.”
“She was alive?”
“Yes. We spoke briefly.”
Tess was strangling the phone. “What did she say?”
“This is the reason I contacted you. Your mother said to please tell you and her husband she loved you very much. She also said you must never blame yourself for her death or she will not be at peace. I tried to tell her she would survive, but she just smiled and said, ‘Tell Tess to follow her heart.’ The emergency team showed up at that second and we were sepa
rated.”
The world twisted and turned out of shape. Tess hurt thinking about her mother. It always hurt, but his words were a gift. She would have preferred to be the one holding her mother, but she was thankful this man had been there and for the words.
The year her mother died, shifters were automatically taken into custody if they shifted in public. No questions asked, just hauled off. There had been some allowances since then, but changing into an animal in public was still a bad idea for anyone who wanted to remain free.
“Did they arrest you, Alejandro?”
“Yes.”
“You went willingly?”
“Yes. If I had not, my pride would have suffered.”
Tess asked, “Where were you held?”
“In a death pit, but I am older and survived.”
Just as she’d thought. She sympathized with shifters who considered the subterranean holding facilities nothing more than a death pit. She’d never get over allowing Cole to be sent there. After all that had transpired, she would be working for changes.
“Why did you do it?” she asked.
“Do what?”
“Shift and fight the wolf when you knew how humans would treat you?”
“Because your mother needed my help,” he said as if he couldn’t understand Tess questioning his action. “First, I’m an alpha. As such, we protect. But above that, I had a sister who was a submissive. Three Black River wolf shifters attacked her when she was eighteen. No one lifted a finger to help. No one would help me find the pack responsible. If I ever do, I will deal with their punishment personally. She never recovered. She jumped from a cliff over a thousand feet high in her human form, which crushed her body beyond her animal’s ability to shift and save her. She was too humiliated as an alpha’s sister to come to me. That is my fault for not seeing what was under my nose. Since then, I have never failed another woman, human or otherwise.”
Tess cupped her mouth to keep a noise inside that shouldn’t be allowed out. A tear spilled down her face. When she could talk, she said, “I’m so very sorry. Thank you for being there for my mother.”
“Thank you.”
There were very, very bad shifters like the Black River pack and there were very, very good ones like this man and Cole.